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Translator: Raul G.

Now Eduardo is back. In the wake of the Second CELAC Summit, an omnibus with police and paramedics made a sweep of the beggars who were camping out in Vedado or Old Havana. “I was in a shelter known as … Continue reading →Continue reading →

From “Pieces of the Island“: Yudisbel Roseyo Mojena, wife of dissident rapper and political prisoner Angel Yunier Remon Arzuaga “El Critico”, has been passing through some very difficult moments during these three months in which her husband has been behind … Continue reading →Continue reading →

The first Cuban vice-president, Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez visited the headquarters of the Cultural Yoruba Association of Cuba this past Monday, days after the Department of State published a document in regards to religious freedom, which alleges that there have been … Continue reading →Continue reading →

Rolando Rodríquez Lobaina (Coordinator of ADO) with Rosa María Payá, of the Christian Liberation Movement (MCL) In a cordial encounter sustained in the capital of the nation, dissident leader Rosa Maria Paya signed an agreement with the General Coordinator of … Continue reading →Continue reading →

From Pieces of the Island: After Berta Soler’s emotional trip to Miami- the heart of the Cuban exile- she has continued to take the Cuban reality to other places with many exiles, such as New Jersey and now, Puerto Rico. … Continue reading →Continue reading →

The following article from yesterday is from “Pedazos de la Isla” (Pieces of the Island) — a news-blog in Spanish and English that keeps a special eye on El Oriente in Cuba (Eastern Cuba). Today the news continues to worsen … Continue reading →Continue reading →

In a video recorded by the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Enrique Lozada speaks during his third week on hunger strike, a protest started to demand the release of his father, activist Luis Enrique Lozada Igarza, violently arrested by the … Continue reading →Continue reading →

Tomorrow, at dawn, Rosa Maria Paya returns to Cuba, just as she promised at the Havana airport two months ago. Her word, contrary to what is common in Cuba, is honest. Rosa Maria will return without bodyguards and without a … Continue reading →Continue reading →

From TranslatingCuba.com site manager: Add this blog — Pieces of the Island — to your reading list. As always “Pieces of the Island” brings up-to-the minute news directly from Cuba — and in particular from places other than Havana — from a broad range of activists who don’t all run their own blogs. Without this [...] Continue reading →

I witnessed this during the past Provincial Baseball Series in Holguin province. The teams San German and Calixto Garcia (Buenaventura) were playing against each other. I was trying to get a shot of some of the players when I came across this situation... Continue reading →

A long time ago, when we were happy and believed that we could fix the world by debating about baseball, poetry and politics (much time has passed since then), we found the Sancti Spiritus-Santiago de Cuba based poet, Reinaldo Garcia Blanco, who reminded us of the time when Christmas was rationed, with his poem “Very [...] Continue reading →

The city of Miami surprised me. Many of its buses pay tribute to someone who is a symbol of defending civil rights in this country. On my daily comings and goings through its neighborhoods, I found that detail. Right behind the bus driver’s seat, there is a small plaque with the details. Miami does it, [...] Continue reading →

To finish, Garrincha sends out this final present, which makes you want to stay and celebrate. Thanks to everyone who did the nearly impossible to allow us to be here. Happy New Year and best vibes for 2013. Luis Felipe Rojas Translated by Raul G. Tweet Continue reading →

Who threw the chalk? The black guy! You have the nose of a negro. But, honey, you’re not that black. Why don’t you smooth down those “curls” so you won’t look so black? Hey, mulatto, you really made those kids of yours ahead of time. Big-lipp... Continue reading →

The songs written and performed by the young musician, David Escalona, carry the very essence of a different Cuba. Omni-Zona Franca, the alternative Havana-based art group, launched the political and social quarrels into the world, and they carry a cer... Continue reading →

It’s Monday the 19th, and it is the first day of school in the United States for my son Malcom. They have placed him in an excellent educational center. It is a preview of our lives here, but at the same time it somehow also connects with what we lef... Continue reading →

Two opposite dynamics have had to change their actions in order to prevail: government repression and the peaceful opposition. Everyday Cubans have taken up arms with new technologies, they have supported each other with the scarce glimmers left behind... Continue reading →

Steps towards collapse. Do they tell the true story of that project of a nation usurped and which they have named Cuba? Cuba says, time of election or voting? Do they tell the story of unknown faces, of that dreamt Cuba in the simplest of grasps. Do we... Continue reading →

The whirlwind of corruption, the lack of ethics and the indiscipline have shaken the foundations of the police unit of San German, in Holguin. Another neighborhood bloodhound has been victim of its own bite, originally trained to demolish any form of h... Continue reading →

Today, my family and I are leaving for exile in the United States. After many years of penury, mistreatment, arbitrary detentions and police harassment — in fact, even against those who make up my home, as well — I am leaving. I know that l... Continue reading →

I have lost count of the times I have heard the phrase “I am not interested in politics”. Often, it is young Cubans who say it. It’s legitimate that we may not be interested in politics, especially if one has lived most of their life ... Continue reading →

More than two decades have passed since that TV series of pro-Castro propaganda, produced by the studies of the (then) Channel 6. The plot only showed the supposed exploitation into which North American executives submerged Cuban workers of the Eastern... Continue reading →

This past Friday, September 7th, I returned to that joyful encounter among friends. I attended the presentation of the 16th edition of the Cuban Voices Magazine, dedicated this time as a tribute to Oswaldo Paya Sardinas. With a forward by Orlando Luis ... Continue reading →

More Testimonies from House Raid Victims: “I was threatened that If I don’t Leave the Ladies in White, They’d Kill Us All” (Read this blog!) After the brutal house raid which occurred in the home of Lady in White Glisedis Pina Gonzalez in Holg... Continue reading →

As incredible as it may seem, Julian Assange is (in his own way) a cyber-dissident. In some way or another, he enjoyed the benefits of democracy, he was born in it, he grew tired of what he said were its errors, and turned against it. But, what wou... Continue reading →

This article- written by Luis Felipe Rojas Rosabal- was published on the digital newspaper “Diario de Cuba” on August 23rd, 2012. Every so often I cleanse my soul and body. Better said: I cleanse the area around my body, because I can’t cleanse m... Continue reading →

The most important month of the calendar for me is July. Firstly, it is when my only son was born and second, it was the month that I left Cuba. Life, without one choosing, imposes change on us. Many times, these changes are too rough to handle, li... Continue reading →

I’ve been meaning to complete this request for a while. Anier, who lives in Pennsylvania, asked me to do it, and his father asked him to ask me. His ‘old man’ wanted to see the signs, how the modern self-employed sell their things. I ... Continue reading →

Once again, I must turn to the only possible method I have from San German, Holguin to publish my post. Like so many other times, I send my post from my cellphone to someone’s email, who later re-sends it to my friends, who then publish it on my blog... Continue reading →

I owe this vignette to my friends Agnes and Cecile, in Toulouse. They came to San German a couple of years ago, right when Hurricane Ike had ravaged a good part of the north-eastern geography of Cuba. The strong winds had left the entire area on end, a... Continue reading →

Recently, certain news from Guantanamo managed to stun me once more, because of its cruelty and because of the dark future stains which it presents for its actors. The note was signed by the Human Rights activist Yordis Garcia Fournier and it assures t... Continue reading →

From time to time, in the middle of conversations between Cubans, a couple of unanswered questions spring up: when did we become two countries, two citizens, two forms of enjoying ourselves, of suffering or of living, simply? There are those who say th... Continue reading →

More than 10 years must have passed since I met Juan Antonio Garcia Borrero. During those years, I participated in the cinema critique sessions which, along with Luciano Castillo, would take place in his native Camaguey. A swarm of youths would move fr... Continue reading →

As I write this post, the “#FestivalCLIC” (or ‘Click Festival’) is underway in Havana–a citizen undertaking to try and channel information between Cubans in the island. May Cuba connect to the world, and the world connect to Cuba, or as t... Continue reading →

Original post sent as jpg image by Luis Felipe Rojas through his cell phone It’s a real jewel of journalism, worthy of being stored in any historical archive. It appeared on the “Personal Issues” section of the classified ads of the weekly Ahora ... Continue reading →

In a prison just outside of Moscow, the passing hours were shattering the head of the Soviet dissident Alexander Bukosky. The white walls. The cold. The flies on the roof. The prisoners came and went with thousands of complaints and denouncements of violations which the guards were subjecting them to, and he could not last [...] Continue reading →

“Down with Domestic Violence”- Art by El Sexto Violence against women within different levels of society has taken an uncommon appearance. Amid campaigns and promotions to end this epidemic, the physical violence continues through untarnished machismo and a vulgar scorn for feminine dignity. Even without counting the official statistics of women who are killed or [...] Continue reading →

It is May twenty-ninth, the dawn creeps up and brings the end of baseball season with a new champion: Ciego de Avila. Amid the euphoria which caused this tight closing against the giants of the Industriales, the deficiencies of the national pastime were brought to light. Cuban baseball has been suffering for some time now [...] Continue reading →

What are you waiting for? Who are you waiting for? Alone and solaced, I patiently saw you yesterday as the city was falling on top of me. While life was rushing towards me you were heading towards that meadow where everything is further and clearer. ... Continue reading →

Cuba is a country which has been narrated to the maximum. The poems, the essays, and the narratives have rummaged down to the core to bring out the best and worst of a nation, which in the process of trying to see itself has tried to be the belly of the world. Javier Negrin, a [...] Continue reading →

One can already hear the beating drum of the proletariat. Just a few work days away from the International Day of the Worker, the red machine of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has spent various weeks moving around its chains. This time, the confirmation came from the voice and presence [...] Continue reading →

It was Spring of 2005 when I read “The Others: Challenges of Reconciliation“, written by Juan Antonio Blanco. I remember having experimented with the sensation of having relocated myself once more. I felt that I was once again setting off my prow in regards to the hate and fears of the Cuba in which I [...] Continue reading →

More than five years ago, the Festivities of May stopped being my festivities. A political accident excluded me from a celebration which I ingeniously believed to be mine. Today I once again was able to take a peek at that gift which is to look at Cuba, and nearly touch her, with the lens. Translated [...] Continue reading →

Through a method of stupidity and propaganda, Cuban television usually goes beyond us. What to do about it, though? We are not perfect. However, this past Saturday April 21st, during the morning cartoons, many of us were shocked at what we saw. It was a short cartoon for kids, with the same title as this [...] Continue reading →